Jerzy Ficowski

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Jerzy Ficowski (2002)
Ficowski's grave

Jerzy Ficowski (born October 4, 1924 in Warsaw , Poland ; † May 9, 2006 ibid) was a Polish writer, poet, translator and ethnologist .

Life

Ficowski went to school in Warsaw. After the German troops marched in, he served as a volunteer in the Polish Home Army ( Armia Krajowa , AK). He was arrested in 1943 and sent to the notorious Pawiak Prison for a few weeks . From August 1944 Ficowski fought against the German occupiers in the Baszta Regiment during the Warsaw Uprising . Together with other survivors of the uprising, Ficowski came into German captivity. After the war he returned to Warsaw and studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Warsaw . In 1948 he published his first poetic work Die Zinnsoldaten .

In order to avoid persecution by the state security of the Stalinist system, he went into hiding for years with a Roma family. There he learned their language, researched their customs and history and published their folk poetry in the original and in Polish translation. a. the poems of the singer Bronisława Wajs , known as Papusza, who he has supported since 1949 . As an advisor to the Polish government on "Gypsy issues", Ficowski supported the settlement policy that tried to persuade the Roma to settle down: first through housing offers and financial aid, later with coercion. In the film Papusza (director: Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze , Poland 2013) the character Ficowski, who - against the fierce resistance of her family - wants to promote Papusza and publish her poetry, plays a central role.

Together with Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuroń , Ficowski co-founded the opposition KOR committee in June 1976 .

After the end of communist rule, the publishing house Pogranicze (Grenzland) based in Sejny promoted Ficowski's work. The cultural foundation associated with this publisher awarded Ficowski the award “Mensch des Grenzlandes” in 1999 (this award was also given to Tomas Venclova , Claudio Magris and Arvo Pärt ).

He was married twice. His first wife Wanda Ficowska was a painter, the second - Elżbieta Ficowska - was a pedagogue and children's book author.

Ficowski was buried in the military section of the Powązki National Cemetery in Warsaw. Christian and state dignitaries, but also many Roma and Jews, including Michael Szudrich , the chief rabbi of Poland , took part in the funeral .

Works

From 1956 he researched the work of the Polish-Jewish poet Bruno Schulz in Drohobycz and published a number of essays , articles and books about him. In 1988 he published the Polish transmission of Jizchak Katzenelson's poetic work on the murder of the Jews in Poland: Dos lied vunem ojsgehargetn Yidischn Volk / Great Song of the Exterminated Jewish People . Also in 1988 was the anthology of Yiddish folk poetry in Poland , which he had transferred, to Raisins with Almonds ( Rodzynki z migdałami ).

The book Bruno Schulz: 1892-1942 , published by Hanser in 2008 . An artist's life in Galicia unfortunately represents a greatly abbreviated version of the sum of Ficowski's decades of research on Schulz ( Regiony wielkiej herezji i okolice , Sejny 2002). The German translation was based on an English-language version that had been created during Ficowski's lifetime - with a view to the American book market - and was essentially limited to the biographical part. Ficowski's book Regiony wielkiej herezji i okolice goes far beyond the biography. Unfortunately, Carl Hanser Verlag has not made a note of the difference in text volume. Since most of the German-speaking reviewers never had Ficowski's original in their hands, this aspect was not taken into account in the reviews. One of the few who came up to talk about it was Arno Lustiger .

As an ethnologist, Ficowski traveled with Polish Roma for a long time , also recorded their fairy tales and published them in a volume Galạzka z drzewa sloṅca. (Eng .: a spoon from a laurel tree). It was published in 1985 under the title Ein Zweig von einer Sonnenbaum in a German translation by Karin Wolff .

In German language

  • Read from the ashes . Poems. Translated from Polish and retouched by Karin Wolff. Union Verlag, Berlin 1986.
  • A branch from the sun tree . Fairy tale Polish gypsies. Collection 1, recorded and narrated by Jerzy Ficowski. Translation Karin Wolff . Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungsverein, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1985, ISBN 3-78870-769-0 .
  • Roland Schopf (Ed.): How much grief and ways. Gypsies in Poland . Translation Karin Wolff. P. Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-63144-347-1 .
  • as editor; Bruno Schulz: Reality is the shadow of the word, essays and letters . Translation: Mikołaj Dutsch, Joseph Hahn. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2000. ISBN 3-42312-822-4
  • as editor; Bruno Schulz: Reality is the shadow of the word. Essays and letters. Translation: Mikołaj Dutsch, Joseph Hahn. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1992, ISBN 3446170561 / ISBN 3-44616-516-9 .
  • Waiting for the dog to sleep. Narratives . Translation Karin Wolff. Edition Dodo, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-934351-05-0 .
  • The sister of the birds. Fairy tales of the Polish Roma . Recorded and narrated by Jerzy Ficowski. Translation Karin Wolff . Elefanten Press, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-88520-578-5 .
  • Bruno Schulz: 1892-1942. An artist's life in Galicia . Translated and edited for the German edition by Friedrich Griese. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2008.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Some sources also give September 4th as the birthday .
  2. ^ Ficowski, Jerzy: The Gypsies in Poland. History and Customs , Warsaw 1985.
  3. ^ Ficowski, Jerzy (ed.): Pieśni Papuszy. Papušakere gila , Wrocław 1956.
  4. ^ Ficowski, Jerzy (ed.): Galạzka z drzewa sloṅca. Wrocław 1982. German translation: Karin Wolf: A branch from the sun tree. Fairy tale Polish gypsies. Recorded and narrated by Jerzy Ficowski. First collection. Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungswesens, Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1985. ISBN 3-7887-0769-0

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ficowski, Jerzy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish writer, translator and ethnologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw , Poland
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 2006
Place of death Warsaw , Poland